""

Athol Williams

Lecturer in Management

  • athol.williams@sbs.ox.ac.uk

Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP

Profile

Athol Williams is a Lecturer in Management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and a Research Associate at Hertford College, Oxford.

Athol joined the School in 2023 after a 15-year career in management consulting and corporate strategy executive roles. He was previously a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town.

He holds DPhil and MPhil degrees from the University of Oxford, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MSc in Finance from the London Business School, an MPA from Harvard University, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Expertise:

  • strategy formulation
  • self-leadership
  • corporate moral responsibility

Research

Athol's research falls under three main areas.

Strategy formulation

A focus on organisational and cognitive processes for strategy formulation, including the interplay between strategy and ethics and the interplay between strategy, corporate finance and risk management.

Self-leadership

Research-based tools for personal excellence and leadership by example. This involves developing approaches to personal leadership and exploring the challenges of an ethical personal and professional life.

Corporate moral responsibility

Debates over corporate responsibility for justice and social development, dilemmas of pursuing ethical business practice, tools for ethical decision-making, tools for corporate amends after wrongdoing, and corporate governance required to oversee and ensure compliance with these responsibilities.

Publications

Ranking agents of justice: when should the corporation act?
Journal article  |  St Antony's International Review  |  2018

Teaching

  • Undergraduate 
  • MBA